Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has called on the Taoiseach to withdraw €9 million in funding allocated in the Budget for mobile phone pouches for secondary school students. The spending has been criticized as 'scandalous' amidst claims that schools are struggling with basic funding.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has asked the Taoiseach to intervene and withdraw €9m in funding for mobile phone pouches announced in the Budget.
“This is a scandalous waste of public money, at a time when so many schools are struggling to pay for heating and to keep the lights on,” she said. “This latest squandering of taxpayers’ money comes on the back of massive overruns in the National Children’s Hospital, the €336,000 bicycle shed, the €1.4million security hut and €442,000 each for modular homes that were meant to cost €200,000.”Sources said that the €9m for pouches will not necessarily be a recurring spend and the idea is that they can be reused by students every year or passed on to other students.
In the Dáil, Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said it was “another example of a Government that cannot be trusted with taxpayers' money”. “Did nobody at the Cabinet table put up their hands and say why do we not just ask the kids to leave their phones in their bags? Spending €9 million is grotesque.”
Sinn Féin Mary Lou Mcdonald Taoiseach Mobile Phone Pouches Education Funding
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